seventy-fourth year of his age. He was interred in the burying. ground adjoining the meeting; the Rev. Thomas Towle delivered the address at the grave; and the Rev. Samuel Brewer, preached the funeral sermon; but they were not published. (g)

The following inscription is placed upon his tomb-stone :

The Rev. JOHN ROGERS,

Died September 2d, 1790, Æt. 74.

He was for 40 years minister of this place,

In the discharge of that important office,

He was faithful, zealons, and with the divine blessing useful.
In his private life and moral character

He was pious before God, and blameless before the world.
In liberality to the poor,

And in support of religious Institutions

Exemplary.

"Justissimus Unus

Qui fuit in terris et servantissimus æqui."

Mary his first wife died April 9, 1755, Æt. 32.
Sarah his second wife died Jan. 20, 1761, Æt. 30.
Hannah his third wife died Aug. 21, 1788, Æt. 70.

JAMES KNIGHT.-Very soon after the death of Mr. Rogers, the Rev. James Knight, student at the academy at Homerton, was invited to preach to this people, Dec. 12, 1790; on the 25th of April following he was unanimously called to the pastoral office; and having received his dismission from the church at the Weigh-house, under the care of Mr. Clayton, was ordained June 29, 1791. Mr. Towle delivered the introductory address from 1 Cor. xiv. 40. Dr. Davies preached the sermon from Phil. ii, 1, 2. and Mr. Clayton gave the charge from Acts xx. 27. In 1800, Mr. Knight was appointed Divinity Tutor in the Independent

(a) Mr. Rogers published a Sermon on the Death of the Rev. William Bentley, 1751; and a Tract in 1772, entitled, "Antifop," on the prevailing Dress and Taste of the Times; besides which we do not recollect to have seen any thing of his in print.

WHITE-SRREET.Particular Baptist.

Academy at Homerton, in the room of Dr. Fisher; but he retained that situation only a few months, when he resigned. He has printed a few single sermons.

WHITE-STREET.

PARTICULAR BAPTIST.-EXTINCT.

THIS place, of which the memory scarcely exists, was

situated in Sheer's-alley, White-street, at the back of St. George's Church. It seems to have been built through the influence of Benjamin Keach; and, probably, was raised after the Revolution. It was occupied for about sixty or seventy years, by a society of Particular Baptists, of whose history very little is known. The first pastor of the church was a Mr. RICHARD PARKES, who is incidentally mentioned by Crosby,* his church being one of the thirteen that formed an assembly at Loriners'-hall, in 1704. Mr. Parkes was one of the non-subscribing ministers at the Salters'-hall synod, in 1719. He appears to have been a learned and respectable man, and was one of the first promoters of the Horsleydown Charity-School. He was living in 1721, but died before 1728, when a Mr. JOSEPH HARRINGTON was the pastor of this church. We know nothing of this person, excepting that he was living in 1741. His successor was a Mr. RUSSEL, who had been a clerk in the counting-house of Mr. Brent, at his Lime Wharf, Pickle-herring Stairs, Tooley-street. He was pastor of this church in 1758, but died soon afterwards, and was suc

KING JOHN'S-COURT.—Presbyterian, Extinct.

ceeded by a Mr. DAVIES, who had been a member of Mr. Russel's church, and after his death was called to the office of pastor. It is apprehended that he was not settled here for any length of time. The church being in a declining state, dissolved about 1765. The meeting-house was then shut up for some time, and afterwards occupied as a brewer's warehouse. It has been long since pulled down, and some houses built upon the site, that go by the name of WILMOT'S BUILDINGS. We understand there was a burial-ground belonging to the meeting-house.

KING JOHN'S-COURT.

PRESBYTERIAN-EXTINCT.

KING JOHN'S-COURT is situated in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, adjoining to the spot where stood formerly a priory, or religious house. This was the abbey of St. Saviour, founded by Alwin Child, a citizen of London, A. D. 1082. William Rufus confirmed it by charter, and conferred upon the Monks the manor of Bermondsey. He also erected a beautiful and spacious conventual church for their accommodation. This priory being alien, and a cell to one in France, it was amongst other foreign foundations sequestered by Edward.. the Third, who in 1371, constituted Richard Denton, an Englishman, prior. In 1399, the priory was converted into an abbey, and Pope Boniface appointed John Attleborough the first abbot. It was surrendered to Henry VIIIth. at the general suppression of monasteries, A. D. 1589, when the revenues amounted to £474 14s. 4 d. The king gave the lands to Sir John Pope, who demolished the abbey and built a magnificent house on the scite. This became

KING JOHN'S-COURT.--Presbyterian, Extinct.

afterwards the habitation of the Ratcliff's earls of Sussex.. The ancient gate of the abbey, with a large arch and a postern on one side, were standing till very lately. Adjoining stood a very old building; and on passing beneath the arch, and turning to the left stands St. John's Court, where there is a house of very great antiquity; supposed to be the remains of a palace belonging to King John, on which account it is frequently called King John's Court, and sometimes Court Yard, as is thought from that monarch having occasionally, kept his court there. The surrounding spot is now entirely, built upon, and presents a very different spectacle to what it did' formerly.

During the reigns of Charles II. and his royal brother; when the nonconformists were every where the objects of persecution, they naturally sought concealment, and chose the obscurest places whereon to erect their meeting-houses, that they might assemble for the public work of God with as little danger as possible. Even when the penal laws were suspended, the memory of past sufferings led them to prefer privacy and retirement. The meeting-nouse in St. John's Court, which is still in existence, though used for an inferior purpose, was erected in the reign of William III. Previously to this, the congregation assembled for a considerable number of years in a smaller place, situated in Long Walk, in this neighbourhood. It was collected in the reign of Charles II. by the Rev. William Whitaker, son to an eminent Puritan Divine, the Rev. Jeremiah Whitaker, both successively ministers of Bermondsey parish, and the latter ejected for nonconformity by the Bartholomew Act in 1662; upon which occasion, many of his hearers still adhering to him, he formed them into a separate church, which existed under various ministers for nearly a century. In Mr. Mauduit's time they removed to the meeting-house in St. John's Court, which was erected about the year 1699. It was a moderate size wooden building with only one gallery. This society was for many years in a very flourishing state; but in

KING JOHN'S COURT.-Presbyterian, Extinct,

proportion as the old Protestant doctrines were departed from, and another gospel introduced, different from that which their earlier ministers gloried in, the congregation declined. The five first ministers were decided Calvinists; those that succeeded were far gone in Arianism. The fol lowing is a list of their names, with the time of their settlement and continuance here.

WILLIAM WHITAKER was a native of Oakham in Rutlandshire, and born, most probably about the year, 1628 or 1629. His father, the Rev. Jeremiah Whitaker, was then minister of that town, but afterwards called to London, where he was chosen one of the Westminster Assembly, and presented to the living of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, in which he continued till his death. This eminent Divine was careful to train up his son in the paths of virtue and knowledge; and he became early distinguished by his pious disposition. Dr. Annesley says, "there is none can name the time of his unregeneracy." In the fifteenth year of his age, he was admitted of Emanuel College, Cambridge, where his first tutor gave him this direction, which he constantly observed; "To note every day what, and how much he stu died, that in after times reflecting on his life past, he might repent of the time he had lost." Dr. Holdsworth, who was